Sporting Madness

Henry Burris has long seemed so determined to quiet his detractors , and Sunday's Grey Cup set up as the perfect opportunity for him . It was against his old team, the Calgary Stampeders, the team that decided to trade him to Hamilton before the 2012 season to go with a younger quarterback (Drew Tate, who in turn gave way to Bo Levi Mitchell, Burris' opponent Sunday). It was after a year where the 41-year-old Burris was initially the starter, was replaced by Trevor Harris thanks to injury, was replaced again thanks to ineffectiveness, and then returned to lead the Redblacks into and through the playoffs. It was after a year where many were questioning if Ottawa even deserved to be in the postseason, and it was with Burris' own future seemingly up in the air, with the Redblacks apparently set to move on with Harris next year. It was with his individual highs (in particular, his Most Outstanding Player awards in 2015 and 2010) never seeming to quite align with his teams ...

Photo: Hamilton RB DeAndra Cobb (Michigan State) dances in for a touchdown before Toronto safety Willie Pile (Virginia Tech) can stop him. The Tiger-Cats won 16-12. Welcome to another edition of The Whole 110 Yards , your weekly guide to the CFL! Only two games to cover last week and this week thanks to byes, so we'll get right to them. I'll also be live-blogging tonight's B.C. Lions - Calgary Stampeders clash tonight with the usual suspects in the CFL.ca Friday Night Football Live Chat ; make sure to come join us at 10:30 Eastern/7:30 Pacific! Game of the Week: Hamilton 16, Toronto 12 This edition of the Battle of Ontario was surprisingly entertaining despite the low score. Both teams' defences came to play and delivered impressive performances, particularly early; the score was 3-3 after the first quarter and 9-3 for Toronto at halftime. The Argonauts extended their lead to 12-3 in the third, but fell apart down the stretch, conceding 13 unanswered fourth-...

Photo: Toronto Argonauts cornerback Evan McCollough intercepts a pass intended for Calgary Stampeders slotback P.K. Sam in their clash Wednesday, July 14. Toronto won 27-24 to improve to 2-1 on the year. [ Mark Blinch , Reuters ] Welcome to another issue of The Whole 110 Yards , your weekly update on the CFL complete with game recaps, off-field stories, former college football stars and predictions for this weekend's games! Also, I'll again be running the CFL.ca Friday Night Football Live Chat tomorrow with Brian Wawryshyn of BC Lions Den and Tyler Bieber of CFL Daily . This week's featured matchup is the B.C. Lions and Toronto Argonauts, and we'll kick off the chat at 4:15 p.m. Pacific (7:15 p.m. Eastern) tomorrow evening; make sure to come join us then! Game of the Week: Toronto 27, Calgary 24 In recent years, the Toronto Argonauts have tended to receive more national coverage than any other CFL team. That's understandable, considering that they...

Come join us below for the live blog of the CFL Western Final, between the Calgary Stampeders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. CFL Western Final

It's Friday, and the Stamps are going be hard to tame. Their clash against the B.C. Lions in the second game of tonight's CFL doubleheader should be a great one, though. 5-6 B.C. is coming off an emotional win over Toronto that gave Wally Buono sole possession of the CFL coaching victories record, while 6-5 Calgary enters this one looking to bounce back from a dismal loss to Hamilton. Calgary's in a three-way tie for first in the West Division, while B.C. is just one game back but in last place in the division, so this could have huge playoff implications. B.C. hasn't beaten Calgary at all in the John Hufnagel era, and they'll have a tough task pulling that one off at McMahon Stadium, but you know middle linebacker JoJuan Armour will be motivated against the team that cut him, and plenty of his teammates are fired up too. It should be a great one; I picked it as my Game of the Week in my latest column, so I'm hoping it won't disappoint. I'll be li...

It's getting close to the end of the work week as we know it, and that means it's time for one of my favourite moments each week in the summer; a B.C. Lions game. The Leos are hosting the Calgary Stampeders tonight in the second game of TSN's Friday Night Football doubleheader (the early game is Toronto against Winnipeg). I'll be live-blogging the B.C. - Calgary game here and at Out of Left Field . Kickoff is at 10:30 Eastern/7:30 Pacific. This should be a good one. Both the Lions and the Stampeders got off to poor starts, and they both sit at 1-2 after three games. That's not what many had expected, as the Stampeders are the defending Grey Cup champions and the Lions went to the West Final last season. Still, they've both struggled early on, so both sides will be eager to get back on track tonight. Calgary may be in good shape to do that. After a 40-27 thumping by Montreal in Week One and a 42-30 defeat against Winnipeg in Week Two, the Stampeders responded wit...

I'll be live-blogging the second game in the CFL Friday Night Football lineup tonight, which features the B.C. Lions hosting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Both teams lost their opening games last week, so they'll be eager to pick up their first win of the season, but that's going to be a difficult task for the Tiger-Cats. For one thing, despite an appalling showing last week against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, B.C. had plenty of chances to win the game, including on the last drive. That's not too bad against a pretty solid Saskatchewan team, especially one playing in their home fortress of Mosaic Stadium. Meanwhile, Hamilton got their clocks cleaned at home by the lacklustre Toronto Argonauts. The final score was 30-17, but the Tiger-Cats looked worse than that to this observer. Moreover, as Globe and Mail football reporter David Naylor relates on his blog , the Tiger-Cats are 2-22 in June and July since 2005, and no team from the Eastern time zone has won in B.C. since...

My Grey Cup preview is up over at Out of Left Field . It should be a great game. I'll hopefully have some post-game thoughts up there as well later on.

Just thought I'd mention that I'm doing CFL coverage today over at Out of Left Field . East final preview is here , West final preview here and a East final recap is here ; I'll put a West final recap up there later tonight, hopefully between periods of the Queen's-McGill game (which will be live-blogged here, as previously mentioned).

Hopefully I'll be able to get/keep weekly CFL picks going here. Here's the first (brief) version: more detail to come in future weeks! Tonight: Hamilton (1-2) at Calgary (2-1) (TSN, 9 p.m. ET): Pick: Calgary Rationale: Calgary's solid offence and quality defence should be enough to beat a Jesse Lumsden-less Tiger-Cats team. Tomorrow: Winnipeg (0-3) at B.C. (1-2) (TSN, 10 p.m. ET) Pick: B.C. Rationale: B.C. and Jarious Jackson finally looked like they were supposed to last week on the road, where they demolished Winnipeg: this week should be round two. Saturday: Montreal (2-1) at Saskatchewan (3-0) (TSN, 7 p.m. ET) Pick : Saskatchewan Rationale: No one's looked able to beat Saskatchewan yet, and I don't think the Alouettes will be able to break that streak. Sunday: Edmonton (2-1) at Toronto (1-2) Pick : Edmonton Rationale : The Eskimos have looked much better than expected so far, and Ricky Ray should be able to pick apart an old and slow Argo defence that has u...